A Happy Home

For those who fear the Lord and walk in his ways, his wife will be like a fruitful vine. Not only as a spreading vine that serves as an ornament, that softens the hard edges of a house, but she will be like a fruitful vine which is productive. She blesses her God and her husband also. She is fruitful in kindness, thrift, helpfulness, and comfort. She produces the fruit of the Holy Spirit: joy peace, love, gentleness, goodness . . all the things that make a home, a happy home. And if she doesn't produce children she will more than make up for it by producing an abundance of love and encouragement for everyone who enters her home. Matthew Henry said “The wife's place is the husbands house; there here business lies, and that is her castle.”

The vine is a weak and tender plant so it is to be supported and cherished, but it is a very valuable plant. She isn't compared to a flower on the ground, something pretty to be under her husbands feet or a towering tree to be domineering over all, but a vine that grows along the side of the wall just as Eve was taken from the side of Adam. She is a coequal partner in the relationship and the two are complete once they are together

During this time in Palestine, the vine was the only plant that men would plant indoors. And they would let the vine take root inside the house, but the branches would grow out of an opening that was built in the house to get sun and rain. It reminds us that the wife is grounded in her home making it liveable and lovable while her children grow up and out of the home and will some day produce fruit of their own.

Which leads to the last blessing

The fourth blessing is children

“your sons will be like olive shoots around your table”

I think it was George Whitefield that was approached by a woman who said she felt the call to preach and he asked her about her home and her family. She said she had 13 children. He said “Well praise God, not only did he give you a ministry but He gave you a congregation as well.”

In the not too distant past, it was always considered a blessing to have many children. Children are a blessing. As I have said they are better side of humanity. Another blessing, not mentioned to day in the same psalm is to see your grandchildren. They will carry on your family name and your legacy and there is so much hope in what they may become, what they may do in life. Olive shoots would pop up around a tree. The allsuion is of many healthy children springing up around a man's dinner table. They have the health to come to the table to be fed and God has provided for this family to have what it is they want to eat because he, his wife, and his many wonderful children will get to enjoy the fruit of his labor.

Conclusion: Verse four simply reiterates what we started with. “Thus is the man blessed who fears the LORD.” v. 4 We should not assume that if a man isn't married with children that he is not blessed. Thata a woman that is not married or is barren that she is cursed. It is just one way God chooses to bless a God-fearing man who walks in his ways.